Families fight to keep killer behind bars

A parole hearing for Chad Campbell, convicted killer of Curtis Rizzo and Cynthia Lewis, is set for Aug. 4.

Tracey Curry and Jessica Pierce

The mother of 17-month-old murder victim Curtis Rizzo is convinced Chad Campbell is not a changed man.

“If he gets out, he’ll do it again,” said Carol Bauer.

Bauer and Nancy Lewis, the mother of Campbell’s other victim, 15-year-old Cynthia, have teamed up with Curtis’ grandmother, Elaine Hartnagle, and his father, Donnie Rizzo, to circulate a petition asking that Campbell not be released. Having served 18 years of his sentence, he is now eligible for parole. His hearing, originally scheduled for May, has been moved to Aug. 4.

Campbell, formerly of Palmyra, was convicted in 1992 of the stabbing deaths two years earlier of his Palmyra-Macedon Middle School classmate, Cynthia, and Curtis, the toddler she was baby-sitting in Palmyra. Campbell, Lewis and Rizzo all lived within a few homes of one another on Stafford Street in the village of Palmyra.

The case rocked the community and drew statewide and even national attention.
Campbell, a popular athlete, was 14 when he committed the murders, and tried as an adult. He was sentenced to 18 years to life in prison for second-degree murder.

Now 32, Campbell is locked up at the medium-security Bare Hill Correctional Facility in Malone, Franklin County. Campbell had also been listed on an Internet site, www.writeaprisoner.com, which allows prison inmates to post personal ads and résumés. Campbell’s profile, which included a recent photo of him, said, “Relationships come and go, but a friendship can stand the test of time. Do you have what it takes? Well, if you do, then I am the guy you should be writing.”

It also said: “I am an honest, loyal, funny and understanding person who does not judge people for what they have done, but for who they are. ... Experience is not what happens to a man, experience is what a man does with what happens to him. I made a bad decision as a teenager and do not have the background in the way of life that other people have, though that does not diminish my drive and ambitions to succeed in life.”

Campbell did not return written requests for an interview.

During Campbell’s trial, his defense attorney, James Foley of Palmyra, argued that another, older teenager, Michael Hutchinson, who later committed suicide, had killed Lewis and Rizzo. Foley argued that Campbell and the other teen were involved in a satanic cult and that the older boy had terrorized Campbell into falsely confessing to the murders to police.

According to the state Department of Corrections’ Web site, which Hartnagle has checked regularly over the years, Campbell’s “earliest release date” is July 2008. He became eligible for parole in May.

Though the chances of him being released are slim — convicted murderers have a small chance of release after their first hearing — the victims’ families aren’t taking any chances.

“I won’t leave any stone unturned,” said Hartnagle in an earlier interview. “I want to do whatever can help us.”

So far, they have collected more than 1,000 signatures on their petitions that will be compiled and sent to the Board of Parole the second week of July.

After Campbell was sentenced and sent to a juvenile facility near Ithaca, Wayne County District Attorney Richard Healy, who prosecuted the case, and Palmyra Police Chief David Dalton wrote letters calling on the Board of Parole to keep him locked up.

Carol Bauer said not a day goes by that she doesn’t think of her little boy with blond hair and a big smile.

“He would have graduated last year,” she said, thinking about all the milestones her family has missed. “His sisters have grown up never knowing their brother.”

Last month, Hartnagle, Bauer and Lewis each made appeals to the Board of Parole in Rochester.

“We pled our case to keep him in jail,” said Bauer. “You get to speak your mind and learn what happens next.”

Campbell will learn if he will be released within days of his hearing, as will his victims’ families.

Over the next two weeks, Hartnagle said they will be working hard to collect as many signatures as possible. To sign a petition, she said, call her at 597-4183 or Bauer at 597-5505.

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